With deep sorrow, we have learned the sad news of the passing of Peter Taaffe, a historic leader of the international Trotskyist movement, particularly in Britain, and a tireless fighter for socialism. From Revolutionary Left (Izquierda Revolucionaria), we extend our full solidarity and support to his partner Linda, his daughters Nancy and Katie, and the rest of his family, as well as to the comrades of the Socialist Party in England and Wales and the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI-CIT).
Peter Taaffe was a founder of the Militant tendency in Britain, the leading Trotskyist organization in Europe during the 1980s and the one that built the strongest roots in the organized labor movement and among the working class. Coming from a proletarian family in Birkenhead, he embodied from his youth the finest revolutionary traditions of our class, demonstrating unwavering commitment and sacrifice.
Though he never attended university, his solid Marxist education led him to engage in fierce debates with many theorists of Trotskyism and the reformist left, producing far more thorough and accurate analyses of contemporary class struggles.
Far from petty-bourgeois arrogance, Taaffe knew how to connect with working-class militants and activists. His crucial role in building Militant, in the mass movement led by Marxist Liverpool councilors in the mid-1980s, and in the massive campaign against the Poll Tax—which ultimately brought down Margaret Thatcher—secures his place as one of the most outstanding revolutionary leaders of his time.
Many of us met Peter Taaffe in the mid-1970s and 1980s. In building the forces of Marxism during that period, we participated in organizing the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI-ICT) and in the sharp debates that took place in the early 1990s. The collapse of Stalinism and the sharp rightward shift of the traditional organizations of the working class demanded a rigorous Marxist approach and required adapting the tactics of the revolutionary party to an objectively difficult situation.
In the internal controversies of those years, the majority of the Spanish section of the CWI-ICT sided with the minority led by Ted Grant, founder of Militant and another historic figure of international Trotskyism with significant theoretical contributions. We played a key role in founding the International Marxist Tendency, led by Alan Woods.
However, in the years that followed, we conducted a critical reassessment of the theoretical, programmatic, and tactical positions of that split. We concluded that Peter Taaffe and his comrades had offered a much more revolutionary Marxist analysis on many of the issues under debate: the collapse of Stalinism and the restoration of capitalism in the USSR, the failure of the South African revolution and the role of the ANC, the prospects for global capitalism’s economic boom, and openly exposing the complete distortion of Marxism involved in treating the tactic of entryism as a "historical law."
Although attempts at reunification with the CWI-ICT were unsuccessful, and despite the differences that remain, we do not forget Peter Taaffe’s political contributions, nor his determination to build within the working class and its mass organizations. His personal demeanor reflected this, standing far removed from the cult of the "leader" that many of us have suffered and fought against.
A comrade has left us, one for whom we will always hold fraternal respect. And we are convinced that his example will inspire us to continue, without respite, the struggle for world socialist revolution.
Executive Committee of International Revolutionary Left
April 25, 2025
